The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge by Patricia Duncker Read Free Book Online

have done things differently. But consider – what we have here are the threads. If we follow them carefully we’ll soon have the whole tapestry before us. Be patient. Listen. Wait.’
    But that was her method, not his. Schweigen needed to calculate the advantage and the risk, then to act.
    ‘Tell me all you know about the founders of the Faith,’ she said, and the invitation was as gentle and reassuring as if she had proposed an afternoon in bed.
    *  *  *
     
    What did they actually know? Not much, in fact. A central figure, which they had identified from the sparse existing literature, was known simply as the Professor and another as the Guide. The Faith appeared to conform to a classic pattern common to many religions: a complex mysticism of eternal transcendence whose followers nevertheless believe that it is meet and right to intervene in the kingdom of this world. The reactions of the surviving relatives, and the statements given by colleagues and employees to Schweigen and the Swiss police, made it clear that no one who knew the dead had any idea whatsoever that their friends were involved in a religion at all, let alone a suicide sect. The same phrases came up again and again: she never talked about this – we had no hints, no indications – but he appeared to be quite normal, happy, full of plans – they were doing well, he had just been promoted to a better post – but they loved their home and family – she was devoted to her children, I can’t believe she would have let them come to harm – it’s simply not possible, we would have known, she would have told me, this cannot have happened to us. So they were looking at a secret sect, a hidden fellowship. There were no public lectures, no proselytising, no published gospels. But what became clear immediately was the fact that these members of the Faith were hand-picked: they were the chosen.
    ‘Look at this pattern. They nearly all have higher degrees or advanced qualifications. Some of them went to the same universities – all well-known prestigious institutions. They’ve all achieved an exceptional level of education. Most of them are not just experts in their fields – they are the sole expert. That’s why you have such a cautious lot of obituaries. And why the Swiss hushed the whole thing up. They were famous people. It’s embarrassing, peculiar. Hmm, predominantly scientists. Only a few come from the arts, and when they do they are always linked to music. Gerhart Liebmann. He was Swiss, an opera producer and director of the Berliner Staatsoper. I’ve seen his work discussed in the papers.’ The Judge was already pulling at the threads. ‘So that explains the patterns of recruitment. They draw in the people they already know, and recruit from the circles in which they move.’
    ‘And this mass suicide took place on the summer solstice. So they operate on a system that is linked to the moving cosmos.’
    ‘All religions do,’ said Schweigen, sugaring his coffee well beyond the normal dose.
    ‘Exactly. Well, nearly all. Noël is simply the winter solstice festival left over from the pagans. The Muslims generate their holy days through the lunar calendar, as do the Jews. But this Faith seems to have a closer union with the stars than either the Muslims or the Catholics. What’s this?’
    The Judge drew forth a grubby photocopy of a smeared graph, traversed by two undulating lines and covered in random dots. She could see no writing on the chart at all. It looked like a musical score for some complex form of Gregorian chant. She turned it several ways up, trying to read the paper from different angles. Suddenly her face cleared.
    ‘I know what this is. Look. It’s a chart of the middle heavens. This curved belt contains the stars of the zodiac – it’s that part of the sky where you can always see the sun, the moon and the bright planets. And these marked dots are star clusters. Look – these are the stars in Taurus, here is Orion, and